Contemporary
reading and writing instruction tends to be dominated by narrative and
expository texts (Daniels, 1990; Reutzel, Larson, & Sabey, 1995; Shanahan,
1990). Our lives are stories and we find great satisfaction and insight in
reading the stories of others. Moreover, we live in a time when enormous
amounts of information and new knowledge are added to the human experience;
reading and using this growing information is an important aspect of many
people’s lives.

However, while
narrative and informational text take on primary roles in the school literacy
curriculum, the uses of other text forms have declined. For example, during
visits to schools I find less use of poetry, song, oratory, scripts, jokes,
riddles, and other text forms than in my past school experiences. These text
forms were staples that made my schooling enjoyable and memorable. Thus, in
this essay I make a case for expanding the central corpus of current school
literacy material beyond narrative and expository texts. Further, I argue that
these other text forms offer learning experiences not easily acquired with
texts that currently dominate literacy instruction.

My awakening
about the use of other forms of language texts came through my career
involvement in reading fluency, which I have come to believe not only means
reading with automatic word recognition, but also with appropriate expression
(prosody) so the text sounds like real language. Fluent speakers are those who
bring their voices to the meaningful messages they deliver. Volume, emphasis,
tone, phrasing, dramatic pause, and speed (slow as well as fast) have the
potential to add significantly to one’s interpretation and appreciation of
texts.

Texts that lend
themselves to reading with expression are written with voice. In fact, voice in
writing is the flip side of prosody in reading. In such texts, readers should
“hear” the author’s voice while engaging with the material, and they need to
appropriately recreate the author’s voice in their reading.

All text forms
have potential for being written with voice. However, some text forms are more
likely to manifest the sense of voice than others. Informational text, for
example, is less likely to be written with voice than other text forms.
Further, Informational text is often written in third person, which limits a
sense of author voice. The goal of informational text is to convey information
to a reader, not to translate the aesthetics of an author’s voice.

Ironically, despite the
limitation of voice in such texts, informational passages tend to be the
dominant form of reading in most commercially developed reading fluency
programs. The reasoning behind the use of informational texts comes from the
need of students to acquire new knowledge at every opportunity. Unfortunately,
through the use of informational texts for nurturing reading fluency, students’
opportunities to read with voice (and prosody) becomes severely limited.
Indeed, the employment of informational text in fluency instruction programs,
with the specified and primary goal of the fluency activity to read the
informational passage at an ever faster pace, has led to corruption of the
whole notion of fluency – one that will, in my opinion, eventually result in
fluency being demoted once again to secondary or tertiary status among the
components of effective reading instruction.

On the other hand,
narrative material usually carries strong voice characteristics and is a good
choice for fluency instruction. Narratives, however, are sometimes lengthy and
thus do not always lend themselves to repeated readings, a central
instructional activity in fluency development. Thus, brief passages pulled from
lengthier narratives can be used quite effectively for fluency instruction.

Increasing the Palette of Text Types for Reading Instruction

Besides informational
texts and narratives, however, lies a full range of texts that manifest strong
voice and are usually brief enough to allow for repeated readings and developing
fluency. Among these other texts are scripts (e.g., readers theater),
dialogues, monologues, poetry, rhymes, song lyrics, jokes and riddles,
speeches, letters, diaries, and journal entries. A growing body of research has
demonstrated the positive effects on reading fluency and overall reading
achievement from the use of these voiced texts for fluency instruction
(Martinez, Roser, & Strecker, 1999; Griffith & Rasinski, 2004; Rasinski
& Stevenson, 2005; Biggs, Homan, Dedrick, & Rasinski, in press).

As I have become more
involved in the use of these alternative text types for fluency instruction, it
has become apparent to me that these texts offer advantages that go far beyond
the opportunities for simply developing reading fluency. Perhaps the most obvious
advantage is that the uses of these voiced texts provide a much richer array of
reading materials that teachers can use in their literacy curriculum. Uses of
these texts mean greater variety in language, format or structure, length, and
topic. Further, greater variety means that teachers have more opportunities to
accommodate the wide interests in reading and writing that are present in their
classrooms. For example, some students are more drawn to poetry, song, or
scripts than they are to narrative or informational text. The uses of these
various text types allow teachers to tap the interests of these students.

Studying and Appreciating Language

Voiced texts
allow for deeper explorations of language and how meaning is made and
communicated in other written forms. These voiced text forms, such as speeches
and songs, provide opportunities to explore and appreciate the richness of the
language and ways in which writers use written language to express meaning.
Word choice, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, imagery, metaphor, simile,
word play, emphasis, and, of course, voice and prosody, are just some of the
ways in which writers of voiced texts express meaning. Moreover, they do so in
texts that are often compact and at the same time packed with exemplary
elements of writing style.

Exploring Comprehension

In addition, reading
comprehension can be taught in greater depth using these other text forms. For
example, the exploration of textual images and the interpretation and creation
of metaphor and simile are sophisticated comprehension and thinking skills that
are found in state reading curriculums. And yet, imagery and metaphor can be
difficult to teach because they are not often found in school textbooks.
However, authors of poems, songs, speeches, and scripts often create images and
metaphors in relatively compact texts that afford many opportunities for
analysis and classroom discussion.

For instance, Walt
Whitman’s “Oh Captain, my Captain…,” or Emily Dickenson’s “There is no frigate
like a book …,” or Langston Hughes, “Well son, I’ll tell ya, life for me ain’t
been no crystal stair…” are metaphors or similes often easily accessible for
students to comprehend, discuss, and to use as springboards to create
imaginative texts of their own. Recently, for instance, I observed
fifth-graders read Hughes’ “Mother to Son” in which the author uses climbing a
flight of stairs as a metaphor for life. After having made a graphic “T chart”
to facilitate comparisons between life and climbing a flight of stairs, the
teacher had students name other typical events in life. The Super Bowl, cooking
supper, and making a cross-country trip were volunteered. The teacher then
asked students to arrange themselves into small groups and discuss how such
events could be used as a metaphor for life. Finally, after brief discussions
in which analyses were made, the teacher asked students to write, rehearse, and
perform their own metaphorical poems in the style of Langston Hughes.

Varied and Authentic Response

Response to reading is
another way to deepen one’s experience in and comprehension of what is read.
Louise Rosenblatt (1978) noted that there are two types of responses to text:
efferent (academically oriented responses) and aesthetic (artistic) responses.
Both forms of response are important and both should be nurtured in the
classroom. In reality, however, with increased attention given to information
acquisition, efferent responses seem to increasingly dominate the classroom
scene.

Voiced texts,
because they carry the voice of actual human beings, tend to lead toward
aesthetic responses themselves more than informational texts. I think all of us
can remember listening to a song, a poem, a speech, or a play that moved us to
tears, sent a chill down our spines, or initiated a response that was felt as
much from our hearts as it was from our heads. Allowing students to respond to
texts in such aesthetic ways is important; it allows students to make
connections to themselves and others – the feelings, fears, and fantasies that
humans possess – and not simply making a textual experience a means for adding
information to one’s mind. In sum: “There’s something about reciting
rhythmical words aloud. It’s almost biological… It has the ability to comfort
and enliven human beings” (Pinsky as cited by Keillor, 2004).

Creating Common Purpose – Unity in the Classroom

Not only do
voiced texts have the power to touch the heart, they have the ability to unite
hearts and minds. I often ask teachers and students why we have patriotic songs
and poems and frequently hear grand speeches made by politicians and others on
national holidays? One answer, of course, is to inspire. Another answer is to
unite. Voiced words have an ability to pull together people who share
sentiments expressed in texts.

That sense of
unity is not only important for the citizens of a country, it is also important
for students in school. Students need to learn that they are part of a larger
whole, such as members of schools, communities, and their country. Songs and other
voiced and rhythmical texts can nurture that unity. This is another reason that
legitimizes and underscores the need for placing such texts in classrooms. The
rituals behind the Preamble to the Constitution, singing a patriotic song, or
reciting the Pledge of Allegiance help bind students to a larger community in
service and support.

Cultural Celebrations

Voiced texts
have the ability to recognize and celebrate differences between us – our
cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Cultures often mark themselves through song,
poetry, script, and rhetoric. These texts can be used, then, for recognizing
and celebrating the various cultures that reside in our classrooms.

For example,
being of Polish descent I vividly recall my parents teaching my siblings and me
songs that reached back into their childhood while growing up with immigrant
parents and my family’s ethnic and cultural roots. When we sang “Sto lat, sto
lat….” we were not simply wishing one another happy birthday, we were touching
base with who we are and where we came from. These texts are part of my
personal and cultural identity, of which I take pride.

Further, I am
able to share with my students the Polish folk songs that I grew up with and
know. I teach them about my background and what I know about these songs and
texts, and then, I ask my students to do the same for me and for their
classmates. Students of Irish, Italian, German, Jewish, African, Hispanic,
Chinese, Japanese, Iranian, and other backgrounds and cultures can find similar
texts by talking with their parents or grandparents and can bring these texts
into class to share and teach. As a group, we learn, practice, perform, and,
perhaps most importantly, celebrate the cultures and backgrounds that students
bring with them to the classroom.

Writing with Voice

Voiced texts are, by
definition, written in such way that a reader can internally (or externally
through oral reading) hear the voice of the author while reading. Arguably,
this is one of the most difficult elements of proficient writing to teach
students.

As in reading,
however, the types of writing that tends to dominate school curriculum are
narrative and various forms of exposition or informational writing (e.g. term
papers). While not denying that these forms are important and need to be
emphasized, other forms of writing, such as voiced texts, should also be taught
and nurtured.

I feel that the
best way to learn to write narrative and informational text is to examine the
best forms of these texts available to students and encourage them to emulate
those forms in their own writing. An important part of the analyses of such
texts is through repeated readings, so that students can deeply examine text
forms and structures.

Students should,
however, also be given opportunities and encouragement to write the voiced
texts that are the subject of this essay -- poetry, song lyrics, scripts,
speeches and the like. When we ask students to examine such texts, we are
asking them to inspect the sense of voice embedded in them by authors. At the same
time, when we ask students to write in the style of Langston Hughes or Martin
Luther King, we are asking them to write with a voice similar to one that the
original author used. For instance, Elizabeth, a fourth grade student,
reported that when she writes she tries to “hear the voice in her head” and put
that voice on paper. It is likely that Elizabeth learned to write with voice by
first learning to read with voice because writing is a more difficult task. And
it is likely she learned to read with voice through readings of texts that were
rich in author voice.

In our reading
and writing program for struggling readers at Kent State we invite and
encourage students to write their own versions of voiced and rhythmical texts
that they practice and perform. These can be as simple as a playful version of
Yankee Doodle written by Harry, a student in our summer reading clinic:

Yankee Doodle went to town

Riding on a tired duck.

Although it tried, the duck couldn’t fly.

So now he rides in a fire truck.

Or, they can be as sophisticated as
writing their own metaphorical version of Whitman’s Oh Captain, My Captain.
An additional point is worth mentioning when it comes to writing. One of the
most challenging aspects of writing to master is voice – writing in such a way
that a reader can see the face and hear the voice of the author, a style of
writing that makes texts readable, personable, and engaging.

Finally, I’d like to
mention a consequence of practicing and performing voiced texts that I have
observed repeatedly with students who engage in repeated and assisted reading
of rhythmical texts meant to be performed – confidence. Most of the students I
work with are struggling readers – students who have little confidence in their
own ability to read. Moreover, this lack of confidence bleeds into other
curricular areas and into other aspects of their lives. These students begin to
believe that they do not have the ability to accomplish what needs to be
accomplished in and out of school.

In reading, this
lack of confidence often presents in not only slow and halting reading, but
also in what I refer to as “mumble” reading, in which students curl their
bodies inward, put their hands in their pockets, cross their legs or sway or
lean against a wall if standing, and fail to make eye contact with whomever may
be listening to their reading. Moreover, once this lack of confidence begins to
manifest itself in students, it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in
which students meet with less and less success in their academic endeavors.

Repeated and
assisted practice, especially when that practice is aimed at a performance for
an audience can be a remedy for lack of reading confidence. Indeed, when
students can take justifiable pride in a reading performers it can be a wonderful
solution to the loss of confidence that comes from repeated episodes of public
disfluent reading, such as oral round robin reading, which remains an
unfortunate staple in many of today’s classrooms.

Through repeated
and assisted reading, less fluent and struggling readers learn that they can
read as well as their more fluent classmates, they just need to practice a bit
more. And, when these readers perform for an audience, even an audience of one,
they can receive affirmation of their efforts and praise. As one young reader
who engaged in a reader’s theater curriculum during a rehearsal stated, “I
never thought I could be a star, but I was the best reader today!” (Martinez,
Roser, & Strecker, 1999).

Literacy is more
than the ability to read and enjoy a story; it is more than gaining meaning
through informational passages. Literacy involves reading aloud as well as
reading silently, literacy involves appreciating language for its own sake,
reading serves other purposes -- to delight, to unify, to differentiate, to
touch the hearts of those who read. These purposes are legitimate ones for
reading and writing and have a legitimate place in the school curriculum. The
texts highlighted in this essay lend themselves well to these other purposes.
These texts, too, have a legitimate and necessary place in the school literacy
curriculum. It is time that we, as literacy professionals, allow these other
text forms to take their rightful place in what we ask children to read in
school and home.